As all I’d ever termed wondrous bliss unexpectedly died –

As my fantasy of a reality with destruction did collide –

My hopes shattered around me like glass in countless pieces,

Fragments suspended in mocking beauty as time freezes…

–

The clock hand ticks forward and it all crashes to the floor

My knees hit rock-bottom when I could take no more

All I now see is blackness where once there was color

Gone appears the light from the sun and its fervor…

I begin to walk away from the pond of shattered dreams

But the glass is in my clothes and cutting through my heart, it seems

Perhaps I am too close, the smoke is clouding my full view-

Glance up at the tower, instinctively know what to do…

–

Run up the steps; one, two,three hundred endless stairs

And I barely catch my breath, or have time to fill lungs with air –

Before the ground beneath my feet crumbles into sand

Loud thunder above me rumbles as I fall back down on land…

And I hit rock-bottom again

Thinking this must be the end

For surely no human can go through this pain

And still see rainbows through the rain…

–

The whole world seems gray and black tonight

With not a speck of pure, identifiable white in sight

Nothing is untouched, gone is everything –

Then how do I glimpse in that crack a thin white string?

–

Among the dirt, surely this uncorrupted clean string is not real

But just to verify the hopeless doubts, I reach out a hand to feel

And to my electric surprise, it’s most tangible indeed

I yank it out attached to a note, uncrumple it and read:

–

“Verily, with every hardship comes ease” [94:6]

That white thread…

Of hope.

–A.S.